{"id":359,"date":"2013-05-10T15:40:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T12:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fructopia.wordpress.com\/?p=359"},"modified":"2026-01-15T23:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T22:14:12","slug":"unlearning-snacking-fructose-free-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fructopia.de\/en\/unlearning-snacking-fructose-free-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlearning Snacking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IntroductionThe past weeks here in Istanbul saw a lot of visitors from home. Which of course is great because we got to share the beauty and stories of this wonderful city with our loved ones and made most of them fall in love with Istanbul just the way we have. On the other hand, a lot of visitors meant a lot time spent in restaurants, caf\u00e9s and and pastry shops and snacking on street food. We were eating ourselves through a lot of amazing specialities the Turkish cuisine treasures, to show our visitors the amazing tastes we were already familiar with and to explore unknown ones together. What sounds like a dream come true, actually turned out to be a nightmare for my maltreated stomach. Getting lost in all the new, delicious and tongue tingling tastes I wasn’t paying enough \u00a0attention to my stomach anymore. Naturally, it didn’t hesitate to strike back.\u00a0I’m not feeling well, the tiniest amount of fructose turns into a rumbling concert in my stomach and I’m getting sick again more easily.\u00a0After six weeks filled with a lot of “Oh, this looks amazing, I have to try this. I know it’s not good for me, but a tiny spoon full, maybe two, can\u2019t hurt, can it?” -Spoons full of veggies, fruits and, yes, sweets it’s time to give my stomach a break,\u00a0reflect on my personal eating habits\u00a0and unlearn snacking, once again. Unlearning snacking?\u00a0You may be asking yourselves, what is wrong with snacking, I probably just chose the wrong snacks, right?\u00a0Nope, you heard me right. I mean unlearning snacking and not just learning to pick the right snacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But why? At first glance, nothing is wrong with snacking. Everyone enjoys nibbling on something from time to time. However, shortly after being diagnosed with fructose malabsorption, I figured out that snacking was one of the major problems I was going to have to cope with. Most of us are raised constantly shoveling in food without rhyme or reason, even when not hungry. Maybe bored, maybe feeling a slight bit of appetite, but hungry? Not really. Snacking has become one of the major pastimes of our society.<\/p>\n

\"Introduction<\/p>\n

Everywhere you go you are offered a snack or are conditioned to get one: the biscuit that comes with your coffee, popcorn at the movies, ice-cream following a walk on the beach, some slices of apple while working, nuts or olives as an appetizer alongside a glass of wine or the delicious looking oatmeal cookie in the hands of your boyfriend (more on the cookie in my next post). Yet all of these seemingly innocent snacks have one common denominator. They are high in fructose. Unfortunately I have deeply internalized that it is okay to just reach out my hand and put everything I can grab into my mouth without thinking twice. Until I am finally reminded by the stomach pain, the sudden fatigue and the rising disappointment that once again I failed to resist.<\/p>\n

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Image Source: ChatGPT<\/em><\/p>\n

Snacking was and still is the hardest thing to unlearn after being diagnosed with fructose malabsorption. Even three years later I am far away from having internalized the “snack free way of eating”. Here I am trying to unlearn snacking again. And as usual there will be times in the future, where history will eventually be repeated. Just when I thought I had managed to establish a routine in my fructose free diet I fall straight back into old habits and unhealthy eating.<\/p>\n

But, and this is a positive but, there are a few ways to reduce snacking to a minimum:<\/p>\n